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World Telecom. & Information Society Day

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By Mercy Kelani

Importance and impediments of ICT are emphasized every year.

On May 17th of every year, World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (A/RES/60/252) is celebrated to mark the wide spread of technology and communication which enhances e-commerce and other activities globally. The celebration began in 1969, mapping the establishment and agreement of International Telegraph Convention (ITC) in 1865. The ITU conference — International Telegraphy Union — was initiated by the Plenipotentiary Conference in Malaga-Torremolinos in 1973 as Resolution 46. The significance of the program was to aid in the promotion of the tech world, and opportunities to solve the hurdles of communication in the universe.

The scope of this society is to place prominence on the importance of ICT –Information and Communication Technologies– and reveal the impediment that obstructs the dissemination of information globally which was raised by WSIS. Hence, The General Assembly of UN assented on a resolution (A/RES/60/252) in March 2006, affirmatively stating that World Information Society Day will be observed every year on May 17 annually as an awareness and conscious attribute of ITU. This bill was submitted in UN annual conference meeting in 2005.

Member States engage in exchange of reflective ideas.

Thus, ITU Plenipotentiary Conference celebration in Antalya, Turkey, which is annually scheduled on May 17 was also used as the date to celebrate WTISD — World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. Commemoration is usually conducted in ITU Plenipotentiary Conference which was agreed by the councils in November 2006, under attendance of 68 member states and sector members. This bill comes with strategic overviews: stimulation of reflective exchange of ideas on the adopted theme; debating the diverse thematic aspects; and formulation of a report on issues encompassing the theme.

Also, ITU Plenipotentiary Conference speaks on the idea of round table discussion to foster popular participation and engagement among the ITU members; an act which is accepted by the council. More so, debating and thorough evaluation of the concepts of the central subject and objectives of the society must be scrutinized by all members of the society. This explains the relationship between ITU and World Telecommunications and Information Society Day as it is commemorated on May 17 to serve as a balance.

LCD require digital attention to fulfil SDG by 2030.

Continuous celebration of WTISD is to tackle the complexity of communication and connectivity that has existed over the last ten years. This initiative was not established only to foster the social media, but also to promote impactful communication in terms of trading, e-commerce, politics and other international communication as a medium of ensuing safety and convenient communication and purposeful service. However, it was highlighted, according to research that Least Developed Countries (LDC) need urgent knowledge and contact with digital connectivity to boost their developments. These defects in LDC as a result of absence of ITU create abyss, emaciating the development and growth in the countries.

Nevertheless, WTISD concentrates more on stretching their arms to LDC, providing resources to grow and develop, using digital communication technology. Also, ITU calls the council to pledge, from private and public parastatal, for global digital transformation and connectivity to help improvement of universal tech-communication using ITU Partner2Connect Digital Coalition. On this mission, LDC have a need that must be addressed to fulfil the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030. Importantly, the objective is to realize the global productive usage of digital transformation for communication.

720 million people, 27 percent, are offline in LDC.

Records and statistics have shown the data for developmental digital transformation in 2022 from LDC. It revealed that the users from LDC are approximately 407 million people which is equated to 36 percent in comparison to the global 66 percent. Notwithstanding, the level of non-users of digital communication in LDC is higher than users. The result showed that 720 million people are offline in LDC, accounting for 27 percent of the World offline users of digital communication.


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